House Qeldon-Laroness
House Qeldon-Laroness was a powerful political, military, and criminal entity that was founded by Xyril Qeldon and Colette Laroness upon their marriage in 470 NE, and which grew via their offspring and employees for over seven generations. Qeldon, a skilled bounty hunter, and Laroness, an excellent law and intelligence expert, were immediately a powerful force merely because of their possession of the ''Osiris II'', a super-capital warship that began as a Darkstar Cruiser. The couple eventually used this power to lay claim to the Merak system in 565, and declared it to be an independent state free of all outside regulation. They resisted all pressure to join any international governance or regulatory bodies, and instead established the system as a haven for the "respectable criminal," the gentleman pirate who respected general decency and avoided harming innocents or civilians whenever possible. Under normal circumstances, such an initiative would likely have failed within months; with the guns of the Osiris II as a watchful guardian, however, order was surprisingly maintained, and the Merak system boomed with business that wasn't strictly legal anywhere else. Bounty hunters, pirates, mercenaries, smugglers, and others of a similar nature flocked to the system. Qeldon and Laroness, themselves elite members of the underworld, were able to maintain a firm grasp on the system and begin generating revenue from it. And even separate from their own initiatives, the system began to experience spontaneous economic growth and an expanding infrastructure as settlements were created. As the children of the couple grew, they became involved in the business of their parents. The children began a tradition of taking the last name of the parent whose footsteps they followed in, forming two branches of the family. Those who took the Qeldon name were more focused on military, bounty hunting, piracy, and similar professions; the Laroness name focused more on under-the-table business dealings, smuggling, blackmail, conning, loophole-finding, and theft. House Qeldon-Laroness prided itself on never forming a syndicate or using thugs or hirelings; at most it utilized contacts, regular (legal) contracts, and brokered temporary deals. The family took pride in the ideal they could do anything they needed themselves—the only notable exceptions to this were the crews of their warships, and clerical staff, all of whom had legitimate contracts. The Qeldon-Laroness dynasty exerted considerable political and military influence over the centuries, primarily because of its neutral territory and high occupancy of pirate and mercenary forces. The Terran Imperium, after a major hostage incident involving an entire starliner, once attempted to curb pirate activity and even launched a strike into the Merak system in 646. Esra Qeldon, the second child of Xyril and Colette, launched in retaliation what became known as The Pirate Offensive, using her fleet to make six surgical strikes in Imperial space, demonstrating military precision and hitting only Imperial military and naval targets. This brief campaign was successful at admonishing the Imperium. Recognizing that an actual war on piracy would be costly as well as difficult, given their guerrilla tactics, the Imperium officially apologized for its incursion into the Merak system. It did not, of course, apologize for its anti-piracy actions, but the ISF and Navy tapered off their anti-piracy maneuvers to perform at a more normal level. Esra Qeldon was cemented in both public and underworld opinion as a pirate queen, despite the fact that any such action was rare for her. Decades later, during the last two years of the Shadowsea War (720-721), House Qeldon-Laroness began selling intelligence to both sides of the conflict at very high cost. The information they provided was always accurate, but was designed to guide Terran and Anrexi forces into actions that would benefit the House, either economically or strategically. Two years after the war's conclusion, the Anrexi government attempted to bring charges against the House, but accomplished nothing other than generating media buzz, since neither the House nor the Merak system were members of any body that could take action against them. Unlike other nations, House Qeldon-Laroness did not expand during the Settlers' Era or any period following, and remained content with a single star system. This allowed the House to keep its power and military consolidated, and it was untouched by the turmoil that erupted during the Border Collapse. The increased use of private military companies (PMCs) by various planets and systems during the Border Collapse led to a general rise in the market, and mercenary armies of 10,000+ soldiers became the norm rather than the exception. After the conclusion of the Border Collapse, PMCs became much more common and openly used by many systemic/planetary governments. Eventually this created a need for a body with some sort of oversight power, and this need was fulfilled when Kaitlyn Laroness founded the Iris Guild. The Iris Guild served as an intermediary for contracts that PMCs could accept, and as a record and bookkeeper. All qualifying PMCs were placed on the Register, which allowed them to work contracts. Breaking a contract resulted in a fine equal to the value of the contract, and failure to pay meant the company was struck from the Register. This fine might be appealed in extenuating circumstances, and was sometimes reduced; only rarely was it eliminated. Breaking a contract for a second time meant a PMC was immediately struck from the Register, with no appeal. Because nations desired reliable mercenaries, and because a force as House Qeldon-Laroness backed the initiative, most nations immediately begin brokering business through the Iris Guild, which in turn gave PMCs strong incentive to remain in the Guild; since otherwise they would be stuck with small, low-paying jobs, or very dangerous ones. The Guild merely charged the client posting a contract 5% of its worth, and normally avoided interfering unless an incident occurred. A few decades after the founding of the Iris Guild, Nacara Qeldon created a new mercenary army called Erebus Nyx. The company was separate from the House and was subject to all the same regulations as other PMCs, but over time it became an open secret that Erebus Nyx was the elite enforcement division for the Qeldon-Laroness dynasty. It recruited its members from the top ranks of other armies, or drafted prominent bounty hunters or pirates. Within a few years' time, it rivaled and even surpassed many corporate special forces fielded by likes of Khortex, RDC, Berkshire Hathaway, and other megacorps.